Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Using Video-Based E-Tivities For Peer-Led Assessment, Niamh Imbusch

Case studies: Digital Education

This case study describes an on-line peer-led assessment on the topic of ‘building personal entrepreneurial resilience’. The assessment is worth 30% of the overall module grade. Students complete a self-assessment measure of personal resilience (Reivich & Shatte, 2002) and are asked to note which resilience factor(s) resonate most strongly for them; they self-select recommended activities for building personal resilience and complete at least one. On completion, they prepare a 5-minute video recording using the integrated Brightspace technology, reflecting on their experience of the activity. Once all student videos are uploaded, they review and comment on – using clear guidelines – …

Lessons In Low-Tech: A Handbook For Sustainable Education, Ceri Almrott, Loann Astorino, Sébastien Bette, Benoit Delinchant, Philippe Fortemps, Ulysse Girard, Paul Hendrick, Sacha Hodencq, Fabian Lecron, Julie Lhuissier, Kévin Loesle, Luis Miguel Lopez Santiago, Santiago Perez Rodriguez, Gauthier Renard, Tatiana Reyes, Virginie Vandenbulcke, John Walsh

Other resources

LT4SUSTAIN, an Erasmus+ funded transnational project, is at the forefront of responding to the increasing awareness of environmental and climate challenges. This awareness, particularly among youth, has led to a demand for social justice. With the coordinated work among six institutions, ranging from higher education institutions to private companies and associations, LT4SUSTAIN aims to raise awareness of Lowtech across society.

LT4SUSTAIN is pioneering a unique approach to technology design. By developing “hackathons” and other “hands-on” events, we are engaging students and industry in a way that improves inclusiveness. Our objective is to equip individuals with the skills to embark on …

How Can Tailored Entrepreneurship Training Effectively Support The Emancipation Of People With Disabilities In Ireland?, Ahsan Habib

Doctoral

This thesis investigates the impact of tailored entrepreneurship training on the perceived emancipation of aspiring entrepreneurs with disabilities in Ireland. This community is significantly underrepresented in the labour market, yet it is hindered in accessing self-employment opportunities due to a lack of specific training and limited access to necessary resources. Furthermore, there is a dearth of knowledge in academic literature addressing the influence of tailored entrepreneurship programmes targeted at people with disabilities. To address this knowledge gap, this study gathered data from in-depth interviews with 21 key informants (including nine participants from TU Dublin’s entrepreneurship training programme, five representatives from …

Understanding Immigrant Entrepreneurship In Ireland, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy, Toluwani Akaehomen

Reports

Understanding immigrant entrepreneurship in Ireland involves examining the diverse contributions that entrepreneurs from various backgrounds bring to the Irish economy. Immigrants from EU countries, Asia, Africa, the Americas and elsewhere come with different entrepreneurial traditions and experiences, enhancing the Irish business landscape with new ideas and practices. These entrepreneurs have a significant economic impact, introducing new products and services, creating jobs, and contributing to economic diversity and resilience. However, they often face distinctive challenges such as cultural and language barriers, difficulties in accessing finance, and navigating local regulations. The aim of this report is is to enhance understanding of immigrant …

A Business Model For Communication Design Enterprises (Paper), Con Kennedy

Academic Articles

Several international reports and studies indicate that the Communication Design sector has a skill deficit in entrepreneurship and business management, and a greater understanding of these topics is needed. Some authors advocate applying existing business models for design enterprises. However, the skill deficit prevails. It is worth noting that these reports discuss the entrepreneurship deficit in general terms without an explanation of the causes of this deficit or how to remedy the issue. Therefore, this paper explores the development of a Business Model specific for Design Entrepreneurs for deployment in Communication Design enterprises. A theoretical framework for a specific business …

Between Memory And History: Irish Pubs As Sites Of Memory And Invention, Perry Share, Moonyoung Hong

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The pub has been at the centre of Irish culture and identity for at least two centuries, has become a pillar of the Irish tourism “product,” and an export commodity as thousands of themed “Irish pubs” have been established across the world in the last number of decades, supplementing existing establishments that have served the global Irish community. This paper draws on key themes from the diverse material in our upcoming academic volume on the Irish pub, to be published by Cork University Press, later in 2024. The book brings together contributions from scholars of history, sociology, design, literature, culinary …

Navigating The Pathway To Entrepreneurship For Persons With Disabilities: Insights From An Irish Context, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy, Ahsan Habib

Reports

This report is a study of the challenges facing persons with disabilities who want to start a business in Ireland. It profiles the community and identifies the distinctive barriers to entrepreneurship that persons with disabilities endure. The report concludes by offering a series of recommendations regarding what actions should be taken to improve the pathway to entrepreneurship for persons with disabilities in Ireland.

Micron Agritech, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy

Case Study

Daniel Izquierdo Hijazi, CEO of Micron Agritech, sat at his desk and reflected on the future of his high potential agri-tech start-up. The company had evolved from humble beginnings as a student-led undergraduate degree project to a university spin-off, having secured its latest round of seed investment worth €1.5 million. The “cash runway” had been extended and the young founding team could now look to commercialisation and bringing their patent pending technology, the Micron Kit, from working product to market. However, there were some major decisions to tease out and challenges to overcome regarding the future strategic direction of this …

Future Potential Of Immigrant Entrepreneurship In Ireland, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy

Books/Book Chapters

International data shows that immigrant owned enterprises are an important feature of developed economies. Immigrant entrepreneurs generally report a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than the incumbent population, and their businesses, though traditionally concentrated in low skilled industries, can and are increasingly featuring in high value sectors of the economy. The motivation of immigrants to engage in entrepreneurship is informed by a myriad of reasons, but is traditionally associated with “push” factors or necessity. This diverse population of entrepreneurs can encounter various obstacles to entrepreneurship, some of which pertain to their immigrant status, in addition to the mainstream challenges of …

Meeting The Sustainability Challenges: An Assessment Of Entrepreneurial Education, Anna Zherdeva, Intesar Madi, Abrar Alzankawi, Lucia Morales Dr, L. Pop, A. Soler-Dominguez, J.C. Saez

Conference papers

The importance of sustainability and entrepreneurship education is highlighted in this study. The world economies are facing significant challenges as they try to enable the transition towards more sustainable economic and business models. Therefore, at the centre of the transition process, it is critical to consider the role that business education can play and, more specifically, the role of business schools in integrating and supporting the development of skills and competencies that align with our contemporary society's needs. In this paper, we initially assess the need to connect entrepreneurial and sustainability education by exploring the educational offerings at Technological University …

Competency-Based Training Within The Prison System: Enhancing The Likelihood Of Entrepreneurial Activity Upon Release, Martina Brophy, Ana Pérez-Luño, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Recidivism rates across the world remain high, and one of the key reasons for this situation is that people leaving the prison system have great difficulty in securing employment. Addressing this issue must be explored from a broad perspective, but one potential career option that is under-explored is self-employment, with few entrepreneurship programmes available within prison systems. This study explores a competency-based approach to training, examining the knowledge, skills, and behaviours needed to enhance the prospects of persons with lived experience of prison becoming entrepreneurs. Using thematic analysis on ten in-depth interviews, this article identifies three categories of competency (generic,specific, …

Ailim Healing, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy

Case Study

For Niamh Malone, her challenges are typical of a high-tech start-up (i.e., raising funding, building an entrepreneurial team, creating a successful business model). However, these challenges are exacerbated by the additional difficulties associated with her disabilities. For instance, Niamh has difficulty securing financial lending due to her poor financial history as a result of not being able to work and having significant medical expenses. This case study requires a student to identify and address key issues in a business start-up, but they must also take cognizance of the additional and distinctive challenges faced by entrepreneurs who have a disability.

Framing A Feminist Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Lived Experiences Of Women Entrepreneurs, Edicleia Oliveira, Serge Basini, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Purpose – This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to the proposed framework.

Design/methodology/approach – The article critically examines the current state of women’s entrepreneurship research regarding the institutional context and highlights the benefits of a shift towards feminist phenomenology.

Findings – The prevailing disembodied and gender-neutral portrayal of entrepreneurship has resulted in an equivocal understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and perpetuated a male-biased discourse within research and practice. By adopting a feminist phenomenological approach, this article argues for the importance …

Enhancing Inclusive Entrepreneurial Activity Through Community Engagement Led By Higher Education Institutions, Emma O'Brien, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

While supporting entrepreneurship through government intervention has become a global phenomenon, the OECD (2021) has identified that several communities (including women, youth, seniors, unemployed and immigrants) remain under-represented in terms of entrepreneurial activity. Inclusive entrepreneurship policies seek to enhance economic and social inclusion and emphasise the significant contribution that people from within these communities could make to local and regional development if appropriate support was offered. The purpose of this study is to examine how higher education institutions (HEIs) can co-create inclusive entrepreneurial training initiatives with local communities that support economic and social inclusion.

Entrepreneurship As Collective Action: The Next Frontier., Cyrine Ben-Hafaïedh, Claire Champenois, Thomas M. Cooney, Leon Schjoedt

Articles

Collective action in entrepreneurship is lacking in the extant literature. Despite entrepreneurship research progressively moves away from the focus of a lone heroic entrepreneur, scholars have yet to absorb the full potential of entrepreneurship as collective action. Also missing is a collective stance on key entrepreneurship concepts such as opportunity discovery or construction and entrepreneurial agency. Accordingly, this article reviews and critiques five articles that constitute this Special Issue seeking to establish ‘entrepreneurship as collective action’ as the next frontier of entrepreneurship theory development. The articles in this Special Issue each investigate a specific instance of collective action in entrepreneurship. …

2023 School Of Culinary Arts & Food Technology Newsletter - Summer Edition 2023, James Murphy

Other resources

The School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, TU Dublin, Summer Edition Newsletter captured the many events, sustainability, research, awards, significant contributions and special civic and community activities which the students and staff members of the school have successfully completed up to the Summer period of 2023. The successful completion of these activities would not be possible without the active and on-going support of the 'INSPIRED' friends of Culinary Arts and our 'Transforming Tommorrow' partners (school supporters) plus our school's industry association supporters. If you would like to support our school and the next Generation of Food, Culinary and Horticulture …

Considerations For Scaling A Social Enterprise: Key Factors And Elements, Clodagh O'Reilly, Lucia Walsh, Ziene Mottiar

Articles

The number of social enterprises has grown exponentially in recent times. International research regarding how social enterprises scale is starting to emerge and is becoming an area of increased focus. Due to their hybridity, social enterprises experience unique scaling challenges, and research has started to examine these experiences. This theoretical paper reviews existing literature on social enterprise scaling and, based on this, proposes a conceptual model for understanding the interdependent factors and elements social enterprises must navigate when scaling. The proposed conceptual model will provide a base for further empirical research. When validated, it will also provide a practical tool …

What Is The Entrepreneurship Process For Communication Design Enterprises?, Con Kennedy

Doctoral

The literature indicated that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in economic development and that understanding what entrepreneurship is has changed with the development of society and entrepreneurship theory (Murphy et al., 2006). However, there is an identified skills deficit in understanding entrepreneurship in the communication design sector (Design Enterprise Skillnet, 2021; Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, 2016; Intertrade Ireland, 2009; Design Council, 2007; Enterprise Ireland, 1999). Nevertheless, within each of these studies, the deficit has not been addressed, nor is the entrepreneurship process for communication design enterprises established. The literature on entrepreneurship generally ignores entrepreneurship in the design sector, …

The Missing Entrepreneurs 2023 "Ireland", Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

This country profile presents recent trends in entrepreneurship and self-employment for women, youth, seniors, immigrants and people with disabilities in Ireland relative to the average for the European Union. It also describes recent policy actions and current issues related to inclusive entrepreneurship.

Understanding The Interplay Between Immigrant Nascent Entrepreneurship And Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Lucia Walsh, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Purpose – All entrepreneurs face challenges during their venture start-up process, but immigrant entrepreneurs face additional and distinctive challenges due to their contextual newness. This paper focuses on understanding the intertwined journeys of nascent entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation of immigrants in a small Western European country where immigrant entrepreneurship is still a relatively new phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach – The induction-driven, 18-month longitudinal empirical inquiry focused on six early-stage nascent entrepreneurs. Qualitative methods included participant observation during an enterprise program, qualitative interviews and ongoing informal communication.

Findings – The data uncovered the interplay between the nascent immigrant entrepreneurship and crosscultural adaptation. This …

Developing Entrepreneurial Skillsets Amongst Rural Women In Uganda, Sylvia Gavigan, Thomas M. Cooney, Klavs Ciprikis

Articles

Purpose: Rural women in Africa have less entrepreneurship opportunities than men. This is mainly due to societal expectations of women, but it may also be caused by a lack of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills due to their work in agriculture-related activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of entrepreneurship training on entrepreneurial skillsets of rural women working in Uganda and how such training influences their entrepreneurial activity.

Design/methodology/approach: The primary data set for this study comes from surveys of rural women working in agriculture who participated in a specific entrepreneurship training programme in Uganda. A …

The Burren Smokehouse, Aileen Kennedy Dr, Tara Rooney Dr

Case Studies

The Burren Smokehouse is one of Ireland’s best known artisan producers of organic Smoked Salmon, Mackerel, Trout and Gauda Cheese using 100% Irish quality raw materials for its products. This case explores the role of the Brand and brand experiences in the artisan food market. The role of place in the brand story and values is central to The Burren Smokehouse and the expansion of the operation to include a visitor centre has ensured that these values are embedded.

The case explores the role of visitor experiences and asks the student to Identify and discuss the strategic and tactical business …

Instigating Change And Managing Growth: Keogh’S Progression From Local Family Business To International Player, Donal O Brien Dr

Case Studies

This case is about the progression of a family business from small local holding to a diversified local and international player. The Keoghs family farm has been in existence for over 200 years in the same location just north of Dublin City, Ireland. Huge changes in the market and consumers behaviour have forced the family into major changes to reinvent the business. The case focuses on the drivers of these decisions and the process management had to go through to implement change.

Keeping It Agile: The Internationalisation Decision For The Agile Executive, Siobhan O Regan, Roger Sherlock

Case Studies

This case focuses on The Agile Executive, a company looking for new market opportunities to expand their business in several possible European markets.

This case is also an exercise case for students to practice their knowledge from the perspective of strategic management, branding, marketing & sales, conducting market research and the development of feasible marketing entry strategies, all based on clear use of robust criteria, aligning with the core competences, resources and capabilities of the organisation.

This case can be divided into sub-cases that could focus on answering the questions of how to enter or expand in a target European …

What Makes A Great Strategy? Gea Farm Technologies Road To Smart Farming, Jan-Philipp BüChler Prof. Dr.

Case Studies

GEA Farm Technologies is a mid-sized world market leader of mechanical equipment and service solutions for milk production and livestock farming. Senior management of the hidden champion gets approval for an accelerated acquisition strategy to boost growth and innovate the business model vis-á-vis strong competitors in order to lead and develop the market. However, the existing strategic management of internal technology development would be altered and a significant part of management attention would be shifted towards M&A as well as post-merger integration efforts. The case study invites students to explore the benefits and limits of this business model innovation and …

Entering The Next Level Of Value Generation: Servitization And Digitization For Industry 4.0 By Ifm Electronic, Robert Ciszewski, Jan-Philipp Büchler Prof Dr

Case Studies

Ifm electronic is a mid-sized wold market leader in sensor electronics for industry and automotive applications. The hidden champion shows an impressive growth trajectory in the last 20 years from around 200 mio. € to 1 bn. € in 2019. In this case study, the ambitious leaders of this company start to elaborate the strategy for achieving the next billion. Students are required to identify the drivers of growth in the past decades and evaluate the steadiness of this recipe for success in the context of major shifts and technological advances in key customer industries such as industry 4.0 and …

New Market Entrance Projects For A Small Company: Responding Sustainable Development Guidelines, Ruta Ciutiene, Evelina Meiliene

Case Studies

JSC “Žemaičiių virvės” is small company operating in Lithuania. The company has developed its activity in cord and rope production. To guarantee high quality production and to satisfy growing customer needs and requirements, the company pays considerable attention to new technologies. The company’s products are sold in the country’s supermarkets and supplied to foreign markets. An in-depth interview with the company's manager was conducted to identify the problems that JSC “Žemaičių virvės” faces. Projects drive change in organizations and open up growth opportunities. Therefore, students are introduced to core concepts such as projects, role of the projects aiming the development …

Understanding The Interplay Between Immigrant Nascent Entrepreneurship And Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Lucia Walsh, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Purpose

All entrepreneurs face challenges during their venture start-up process, but immigrant entrepreneurs face additional and distinctive challenges due to their contextual newness. This paper focuses on understanding the intertwined journeys of nascent entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation of immigrants in a small Western European country where immigrant entrepreneurship is still a relatively new phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

The induction-driven, 18-month longitudinal empirical inquiry focused on six early-stage nascent entrepreneurs. Qualitative methods included participant observation during an enterprise program, qualitative interviews and ongoing informal communication.

Findings

The data uncovered the interplay between the nascent immigrant entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation. This led to the …

How Is Immigrant Entrepreneurial Opportunity Formation Influenced By Interactions Between Home And Host Countries?, Kingsley C. Njoku, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

This study examined how the entrepreneurial opportunity formation process among different ethnic groups was influenced by their origins and the cultural values accustomed to them. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, data was collected from 20 participants (five each from four different ethnic groups) using an in-depth interview technique. The study found that the interactions between an immigrant's home and host environments can take different forms (i.e., enablers and threats) which will influence their career choices in diverse ways. The study model framework showed that participants are influenced distinctly subject to their ethnic backgrounds and the nature of their interactions with …

“Old Boys' Club”: Barriers To Digital Marketing In Small B2b Firms, Justina Setkute, Sally Dibb Prof

Articles

Despite the widely acknowledged benefits of digital marketing, many B2B SMEs have been slow to adopt these practices. These firms' characteristics and ways of working mean that digital marketing as practiced in B2C or in larger firms may be unsuitable. This paper aims to increase understanding about digital marketing in B2B SMEs, by examining the barriers they face and the digital practices that work for them. A qualitative research methodology is used to focus on these previously unexplored practices in small B2B firms operating with the oil and gas industry. The study identifies the internal and external factors linked to …